Seminar: Picosatellites

Wednesday afternoon's press-conference slot was devoted to a seminar for science writers, "The Expanding Universe of Shrinking Satellites," based on Special Session 107, "Astronomy Research and Development Using Picosatellites." Four speakers described new opportunities in research and education as shoebox satellite move from rare to ubiquitous components of college science and engineering programs. Alexander Antunes (Capitol College), Jonathan McDowell (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), J. Garrett Jernigan (Little H-Bar Ranch), and Lynn Cominsky (Sonoma State University) covered such diverse topics as small-satellite cost and reliability, in situ measurements of Sun-Earth interactions, amateur-class space-based imaging, and the use of tinysats for undergraduate research.